[REVIEW] Saints Row: The Third

Okay, so let me just jump right into the mix regarding this game. I, for one, am a huge Saints Row fan (despite how bad the first game seriously was). In preparation for this game, I went back and played the first and second Saints Row (not necessarily in the right order).
We all know that the beginning of Saints Row: The Third is set in the period where the Saints are on top of Stillwater, but that all changes when the Saints attempt to rob a bank owned by a faction known as The Syndicate. Because of the Saints' refusal to pay a 66% cut, they were forced to escape to Steelport where The Syndicate has a strong grip on all businesses.

Now that the background is all done, let us review the game for the Xbox 360. When you first pick up Saints Row: The Third, you can tell that this is an entirely different game altogether. The controls are nothing like previous games. There used to be different schematics to choose from when selecting your controller (e.g. Saints Row 1 had Scheme A, Scheme B, and Scheme C for different playstyles). For Saints Row: The Third, you are stuck with the way the button configurations are setup unless you're playing the PC version. The graphics have been upgraded drastically with vivid details in the backgrounds and to characters; although, the game still contains quite a few glitches here and there.

Pros:
1. Saints Row: The Third not only upgraded its graphics but kept true to the Saints Row comedic value from previous games. The humor and jokes are rampant throughout the story and activities in the city.
2. The developers are Volition themselves. The over-the-shoulder shooting is very smooth for a non-shooter game. I have to admit that it is very easy to pick up and get used to no matter who is playing.
3. The map has gotten smaller but the areas have been designed to look nice instead of the mundane Brotherhood area from Saints Row 2.
4. Acquiring money from properties and businesses has gotten a lot easier too with just the click of a button on your in-game phone.
5. Abilities, unlockables, and many more have been simplified all into your phone for easy access.

Cons:
1. The driving has become even slipperier as your car constantly drifts when making sharp turns.
2. Activities such as Crowd Control, Fuzz, and many others have been taken out, but Escort and Heli-Attack remain.
3. The AI is still dumb when it comes to staying out of your line of fire.
4. Pedestrian drivers are still chaotic and cause a lot of issues when it comes to anything dealing with police sirens.
5. The game feels too easy at times. It feels as though you can just shoot your way out of everything without getting better guns, skills, or any unlockables.
6. The customization (e.g. layers of clothing on top of each other) have been removed. In its place, you get one layer of clothes with no jewelry stores or anything. You choose a set of jewelry.
7. The storyline and the open "sandbox" feeling has been dumbed down to the point where this game feels linear. You can no longer choose which gang you want to eliminate first.
8. There is NO way to replay a mission once you're done with the game. WOW. For a multiplayer game, how can this be?

This list is just a few of the pros and cons to Saints Row: The Third when compared to the previous generations.
All in all, this game is very worth the time that I've placed into playing it so far. I highly disagree with IGN's rating of this game.

**Edit**
So I finally finished the game. I must say that this game was a huge letdown to me.
There are so many bugs and glitches for the Xbox 360 version. Certain achievements aren't unlocking when need be due to some "de-sync" issues as the Volition developers have addressed.
What's their remedy to it? "Make a save file of the point before you unlock the achievement to try again."
Being a Saints Row fan, I am highly disappointed with this game and would not recommend it at the $60 price.
To me, this game feels like it should already be dropped to $20 immediately.

IGN's review scale for 8.5 is a "GREAT" which is one step below "AMAZING" for their 9.0+ scores.

Generally speaking, IGN is terrible and fucking dumb.

However, in this case I would generally agree with them. This game is definitely great, but I think it is far from amazing so far. This is a huge improvement over SR2, and I fucking hate GTA-style games. Glad you posted this! Watch out for my full-written review once I see the credits roll for the PC version!

Why do I think this way? Well. Unless the pacing picks up, the missions are completely retarded in this game. You shouldn't have amazing pacing and missions like the way the game opened, and then throw boring shit at me the rest of the game. Hopefully it turns around.

Sadly, I just finished the game and watched one of the two endings.
I was highly disappointed with this game.
Saints Row was about the customization of clothing and diversions.
Volition removed a lot of those.
It breaks my heart to see how lame the storyline was, too.
One more thing, my achievements glitched. I don't know what happened, but I finished the Zombie Attack mission. I finished Act 3. I finished the Hitman list.
None of those achievements unlocked for me at all.
Such bullshit.

**Edit**
I finished the game.
I don't know what else to say.
It left me speechless at how awful it was.
The game started off, like Z said, at an amazing pace. It was thrilling.
Then, it suddenly just drops off out of nowhere.
It was as if the beginning was the top of the roller coaster only to ride into a screeching halt at the ending.
*sighs* Disappointing.